1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector, and more particularly to an optical fiber connector that is structurally strong enough to have sufficient resistance to an external transverse pulling force without being damaged.
2. Description of Related Art
Optical fiber connectors are widely used in high-speed telecommunication devices to stably transmit light signals through optical fibers. One of general optical fiber connector is the Lucent connector (LC) designed by the Lucent Technologies.
Conventional Lucent connectors have a rear housing, a front housing and a ferrule. The rear housing is longitudinal and hollow and has a front open end and a through hole defined through the rear housing so that optical fibers of an optical cable are mounted through the through hole. The front housing is longitudinal and hollow and has a top, a bottom, a rear open end, a mounting hole and two slits. The mounting hole is defined through the front housing so that the optical fibers are mounted therethrough. The slits are defined respectively through the top and the bottom adjacent to the rear open end. With the slits, the rear open end would resiliently enlarge to allow the rear housing to extend easily into the front housing. The ferrule is mounted in the through hole and the mounting hole and is mounted securely around the optical fibers to position the optical fibers in the front and rear housings. However, when the optical cable on the Lucent connector suffers an external pulling force that is perpendicular to the Lucent connector with an included angle of about 90 degree between the external pulling force and the Lucent connector, the slits of the front housing are easily split.
With reference to FIG. 1, U.S. Pat. No. 6,293,710 discloses an improved Lucent connector (9) that comprises a front housing (91) and a rear housing (92). The front housing (91) has a top, a bottom, a rear open end and two slits (911). The rear housing (92) is mounted around the front housing (91) and has partially covers the slits (911) of the front housing (91). The rear housing (92) partially covering the slits (911) barely prevents the slits (911) from being split. However, the slits (911) are exposed partially. When an external pulling force is applied to the optical cable connected to the Lucent connector (9), the boundary between the covered parts and exposed parts of the slits (911) would be am initial portion being unable to endure the force and starting to split or wear. Therefore, the conventional Lucent connectors are not durable and have low resistance to pulling forces.
To overcome the shortcomings, the present invention provides an optical fiber connector to mitigate or obviate the aforementioned problems.